


Too Old

by camichats



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Age Difference, Domestic, Established Relationship, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Making Up, Minor Eric "Bitty" Bittle/Jack Zimmermann, Relationship Issues, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26662798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Kent sees an article about how Zimms is too old for his boyfriend and freaks out over his own relationship.
Relationships: Kent "Parse" Parson/Connor "Whiskey" Whisk
Comments: 4
Kudos: 101





	Too Old

**From Parse:** You ever feel like you're robbing the cradle a little bit? 

**From Swoops:** No, but that's bc my girlfriend's only like 2 years younger than me.

**From Swoops:** Perv. 

**From Parse:** You're not helping. 

**From Parse:** Besides, he's not THAT young. He started college when he was 20, not 18. He can legally drink. 

**From Swoops:** Sounds like something a pedo would say.

**From Parse:** Fuck you.

**From Parse:** But seriously, do you think I'm too old for him? 

**From Swoops:** Dude, I know nothing about him other than that he's in college and plays hockey (and now that he started college when he was 20). You won't tell me what he looks like, what he's studying, or which college he goes to. The 2 details I know kinda make it seem like yeah, you're too old for him. 

Kent glared at his phone and locked it. Goddammit. That's what he'd been afraid of. It's not like he felt like an old man, but Whiskey felt so young sometimes. Mostly when he mentioned homework, because the last time Kent had done homework, he'd been seventeen-- which was  _ definitely _ too young. 

He called Whiskey to ask him about it, but it was only when it rang off to voicemail that he remembered there was a time difference and he hadn't even thought about Whiskey's schedule. He was in the middle of practice right now. He thought about sending a text to let him know what it was about, but if this was a conversation he wanted to have over text, he would've texted him to begin with. Whatever. It had been an impulse, anyways. And it was stupid, wasn't it? If Whiskey thought he was too old, they wouldn't have gotten together. If Whiskey had thought it was fine at first but changed his mind later, then he would've said something. Whiskey didn't exactly keep that sort of shit locked down-- he'd told Kent the  _ instant _ that he put on cologne that he hated the smell. 

Kent was probably just being paranoid. 

He'd been perfectly fine with their relationship and the age difference thing until some dipshit wrote an article on Zimms and Bittle's relationship, claiming that Bittle was too young and being taken advantage of. Kent and Zimms were the same age, and Whiskey and Bittle were the same age, so if Zimms was too old for his boyfriend, then Kent was too old for his. Not that Kent really thought it was the same. Bittle was graduating soon-- he was pretty sure-- and Whiskey still had a couple semesters left. Zimms and Bittle had played together. Gone to college together for  _ two years _ before anything happened. 

Comparatively, it did feel like Kent was taking advantage of a young fan. It was weird to think of Whiskey like that, but technically that's what he was: a fan. Whiskey had come up to compliment him on his game when they were in the same bar, and Kent had been tipsy enough to think it was a good idea to flirt. It had all worked out, of course, but that had been pretty damn stupid of him. 

Kent kept running it over in his mind: it wasn't a big deal-- this was different than what Zimms was up to-- maybe Kent should take a step back-- but did Whiskey give a shit?-- maybe he shouldn't worry about it. He just went in circles, only jarred out of it when his phone started to ring. "Hey babe," Kent said automatically after sliding it to answer. 

"Hey, what's up?" 

"You're the one that called me," Kent said, frowning. 

"Some people call this returning a phone call," Whiskey said dryly. "You didn't leave a message, so I figured it was serious." 

"Oh." Shit. "Um, no, nothing serious. I'd forgotten you were at practice, so I called, but it's nothing big. Spur of the moment thing, you know?" 

"It's chill. What's up?" 

"Uhh." Kent made a face at nothing in particular. "Nothing." 

"Doesn't sound like nothing." 

"Yeah, well, it's nothing, stop being a chick about it. I said it was no big deal," Kent said, then immediately winced. 

The silence on the other end of the phone was damning. "Right," Whiskey said tightly. 

"Sorry. That was- ten kinds of fucked up." 

"Yeah." 

"I'm sorry," Kent said again. 

"Whatever," Whiskey muttered. He let out a deep breath, and it crackled a little bit through the speaker. "Have a good game." 

"Will you be watching?" Kent asked. Normally he didn't feel the need to check. Any time Whiskey didn't watch one of his games, he told him in advance-- the same way that Kent watched as many of Whiskey's games as he could and told him to have a good game before all of them. 

"I always do." 

"Yeah, but I didn't know if you'd still- yeah, uh, thanks. Love you." 

"...Yeah," Whiskey said, then hung up. 

Kent brought his phone away from his face and wanted to bash his head against the wall. Whiskey didn't always say it back because he was usually in public or around his friends when they had a quick call like that, but this had felt different. Whether it was because of Kent being a fuck-up or something else, he had no idea, but he sincerely  _ hoped _ it was because of him freaking out for no good fucking reason, because then it would mean that he'd be forgiven pretty soon. If it was something else, that would mean dealing with it in addition to dealing with the age difference thing that he was freaking out over. And he still wasn’t sure that he actually wanted to talk to Whiskey about it. He knew he had to, especially after the mess he’d just made of a twenty second phone call. He just. Didn’t want to. 

He tapped the corner of his phone against his head as he thought. Maybe Swoops had been right and Whiskey was too young for him, but that wasn't what  _ ever _ went wrong with their relationship. If they had issues, it was because of, well, who Kent was. Not to say that Whiskey was a saint, but he was more deliberate. They didn't get in fights because of shit he said, because Whiskey didn't talk out of his ass any time he was feeling a little insecure. He locked down-- which was its own issue-- but he didn’t snap at Kent. 

Kent sighed and opened his text conversation with Whiskey. The age difference thing wasn’t the problem. He’d been due for a freak out. 

**From Kent:** Sorry.

**From Kent:** Saw an article about athletes dating people younger than them and how it was skeevy and kinda flipped.

**From Kent:** Still kinda freaking out tbh.

**From Kent:** (Swoops was totally unhelpful)

**From Kent:** Probably should've just said it but I didn't want for you to freak out too.

**From Kent:** Not that you freak out very often.

**From Whiskey:** I freak out all the time who tf have you been dating.

**From Kent:** You don't freak out ALL THE TIME.

**From Whiskey:** This morning I panicked because I didn't have the exact change for my coffee. I had enough to pay for it, but using another nickel instead of two pennies made it hard to breathe. Does that really sound like I'm not freaking out? 

Kent started typing a couple different times then deleted what he had. He tapped on Whiskey's contact info, then hit call. 

"Hey." 

"Did you really freak out over two pennies?" Kent asked. He should've led with something more sensitive, but he was who he was. 

"Yeah. Not my finest moment." 

"I didn't mean what I said before." 

"I know," Whiskey mumbled. "I don't know what to do when you get like that, though. Normally I hang up, and the next time we talk, you're fine." 

"If it helps, I don't know what to do when I get like that either. I just wait it out." 

"I was kind of hoping you'd have a plan of action for me." 

"I wish I had one too," Kent said, blowing out a breath. It was annoying when he acted like that, and he  _ knew _ it was annoying, but he couldn't get himself to stop. It meant that every so often, they'd do this: Kent would say something shitty, things would be awkward, and after waiting a little bit, he'd apologize. 

"What was the article?" Whiskey asked, and Kent had to think back for a moment to remember what he was talking about. 

"Oh. That. It was about Zimms and Bittle. And I was thinking that we're the same age, and you and Bittle are the same age, so..." 

Whiskey snorted. "No offense, but we're nothing like them. They live, like, an hour away from each other." 

"And they went to college together." 

"Are you being weird because you regret not going to college?" Whiskey guessed. Kent brought it up often enough that he figured there was something there. 

"No. I mean, what would be the point? I'm not good at school, and I would've ended up in the league anyways. It'd be fun if we could play on the same team though. Not that you're planning on playing professionally anyways," Kent mumbled. 

"Yeah," Whiskey said, but something in his tone was off. Kent was pretty sure he was staring at the floor in a very particular way right now. 

"What?" 

"I don't think anyone would want me as a free agent instead of the draft. I chose to skip that, and..." Whiskey snorted. "I'm not Jack fucking Zimmermann. All the teams wanted to sign him on, but that doesn't happen to everyone." 

"You're selling yourself short. There have been scouts at the Samwell games." 

"Not for the NHL." 

"Tons of players work their way up to it." 

"Yeah," Whiskey said noncommittally. "You know I don't give a shit that you're older than me, right?" 

Kent wanted to say that yes, of course he had known that, but the truth was that he hadn't-- not for sure-- so he just chewed on his lip and stayed quiet. 

"I don't care about that. It's not like you're forty or something-- that'd be pretty weird." 

"Swoops said he thought it was weird," Kent said without really meaning to. It was a good thing he said it though, because he'd sort of been freaking out about it before, but after talking to Swoops, he'd gone more firmly towards panicking. 

"Isn't Swoops dating an influencer right now?" 

"Yeah, but she's only like a year younger than him." 

"Kent," Whiskey said flatly. "He's dating someone that is basically a low level model on Instagram. He doesn't have room to judge who you're dating if he's making shit decisions like that." 

"Haley's not that bad." She was pretty nice, actually. Nicer than Kent was-- not that that was saying much. 

"Yeah, well when he finds a girlfriend who's a grown ass adult with a 401k and a retirement plan, he can say I'm too young for you and I'll believe it." 

"So you don't think we're too different?" 

"We've got more in common with each other than those two," Whiskey said with a snort. 

"Yeah." Tension started to seep out of him, leaving him boneless with relief. "Yeah, you're right. Sorry for ruining your afternoon." 

"You didn't ruin anything. You busy right now or did you want to keep talking? Foxtrot invited me and Tango to a rehearsal and it was  _ hilarious _ ." 

"Not busy. Tell me all about actors and their shenanigans." 

"Did you really just use the word shenanigans?" 

"Um. Yes? I thought it was fitting." 

"Oof. Never mind. I've changed my mind, you're way too old for me." 

"Hey, respect your elders," Kent snarked back. 


End file.
